Susan Phillips, 50, believes that had it not been for her own training she would not have known that her father had been placed on the Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP) at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge.

Mrs Phillips, who has worked both as a hospital nurse and in a care home, has herself nursed people on the LCP and is not opposed to it in principle. But she said she “cannot believe” that the hospital would have acted without informing the family.

Robert Goold, 69, from Stevenage, Herts, spent at least six days days on the pathway – which is designed for use only in the “last hours or days” of life – with nutrition and fluids withdrawn until his death last week, according to his daughter.

She claims that the care he received at the end of his life was “barbaric” and said the experience had left her family with nightmares.

Last night the chief executive of Cambridge University Hospitals foundation trust said the family’s complaint was being treated “very seriously”.